RESEARCH & THOUGHT PIECES FROM OUR TEAM

U.S. Fixed Income Is Enduring One of The Worst Declines in History

Fixed income investors will look back fondly on the 40-year bull market for bonds that ended in 2021. We’re in an entirely different market now, and while early, it’s the one we’ve been warning about for quite some time. The Bloombe...

Pools, restaurants and camps cut operations even though demand is back. Labor costs are higher and so are prices. ‘What, no one is applying?’

• Oaktree: "Bull Market Rhymes"
• Seeking Alpha: "White House Nears Decision on Forgiving $10K in Student Debt per Borrower"
• The Washington Post: "They Spent...

Before the pandemic, Dani Gantcher earned about $15 an hour babysitting in her hometown of Scarsdale, N.Y. Parents sometimes asked her to wash dishes or stay late. Now, the 18-year-old is raking in $25 to $30 an hour. Moms and dads are asking a lot less from her. And they treat her like a VIP.

• IE
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Americans continue to feel the sting of inflation. Consumer prices rose 8.3% in April from a year ago. As a result, U.S. households are spending an additional $341 a month to purchase the same goods and services compared to a year ago due to inflation above typical inflation of 2%, according to an a...

Millions of older Americans stopped working during the pandemic, far more than usual, stoking fears that the workforce had been permanently altered, but the country is close to closing the gap in early retirements, according to new data.

• Zero Hedge: "Janet Yellen Admits Biden's Spending "Did Feed...

Japanese institutional managers -- known for their legendary U.S. debt buying sprees in recent decades -- are now fueling the great bond selloff just as the Federal Reserve pares its $9 trillion balance sheet.

• Open Insights: "The Energy Shortage is About to Get Bad . . ."
• The Strategic Funds: "I...

Rochester, MI, April 29^th, 2022 -- Managed Asset Portfolios, LLC (MAP) was awarded Morningstar’s coveted 5-star overall rating as of March 31, 2022, for two of its portfolio strategies, the Global Equity Composite¹ and Global Equity Composite Ex-Options.²

The Morningstar rankings add to the firm’s ...

Soaring fertilizer costs have rice farmers across Asia scaling back their use, a move that threatens harvests of a staple that feeds half of humanity and could lead to a full-blown food crisis if prices aren’t curbed.

• Bloomberg: "Rising Fertilizer Costs are Catching up to Rice Farmers, Threatenin...

“Globalization is not something we can hold off or turn off,” former President Bill Clinton told an audience in Vietnam in 2000. “It is the economic equivalent of a force of nature—like wind or water.”

• The Wall Street Journal: "Globalization Isn’t Unraveling. It’s Changing."
• The Wall Street Jour
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The mood among sellers seems to have shifted in recent weeks from apathy about the slow boil of higher rates to urgency, financial advisers and real-estate agents said. Sellers are seeking advice on how best to time the market and tame their anxiety.

• Visual Capitalist: "Understanding Zinc’s Role ...

Wages continued to grow in March, but the pace has cooled slightly over the past few months, suggesting employers are feeling less pressure to offer pay increases as more people return to the workforce, which could ease inflation pressures.

• Bloomberg: "Soaring Mortgage Rates in U.S. Dent Demand f...

Investors faced several daunting challenges during the first quarter. The war in Ukraine stole the spotlight during the second half of the quarter, but even before that tragedy began to unfold, the investment landscape was changing dramatically for investors. Inflation went from being “transitory,” ...